While this survey is small it's interesting. I would tend to some what agree with the findings on savings and insurance of military personnel. However it's much easier to get a military loan against your income. Try doing that as a private young man/woman and the results are different. Too, when in the military your committed for a number of years. There is no worry about losing your job. Especially for those younger military personnel. Should you live on a military base housing isn't an issue. Transportation becomes some what less important too. Your not going to purchase a car if your being sent overseas or on a ship for several months. Perhaps repaying college costs has some impact on this survey. Knowing you can be in harms way at any moment certainly tends to make one focus and mature faster. The military deserves kudos for the job they do in seeing that their members take advantage of insurance and benefits available. It's encouraging to see more military personnel that are pleased with their current situations. We owe all of them a debt of appreciation.

11:07 pm March 22, 2014

Jim Philpitt wrote:

Eric & Tim make some valid points, but as a retired Navy CAPT of 30+ years of service and one who still works for DoD, let me just add a few additional comments for added clarity for all readers:

- "Military loan"...I'm not quite sure what Tim is alluding to here. Can an age 18-34 y/o service member secure a loan from a private lender with greater ease than their non-military counterpart? Possibly, especially via a military-affiliated credit union (like NFCU). However, said loan will also be influenced by pay grade...a 24 y/o LTJG or 1stLt will likely be in a better financial position than a 24 y/o Petty Officer, Corporal or Senior Airman for similar sized loans due to the base pay (and BAH, BAS and any special pays...like the Flight Pay I received) differentials. As for "loans against military income," some may be confusing this with "Advance Pay"...optional interest free loans of two months basic pay paid back over a 6 month period...but that opportunity is only offered when executing Permanent Change of Station (PCS) orders.

- College costs repayment? For commissioned officers age 18-34, this is a non-factor if commissioned via a service academy or an ROTC college scholarship program. For the ROTC or PLC folks w/ no scholarship or the OCS/OTS types, given what we pay Ensigns and 2ndLts, such loans are typically retired in short order. Officers in this age cohort also typically pursue/complete a partially or fully military-funded postgrad degree prior to age 35, since at least a master's degree has become a de facto requirement for promotion to field grade/senior officer rank. Enlisted personnel in this age cohort, the majority of whom enlist immediately or shortly following high school, may also avail themselves to undergraduate degree programs paid all or in-part via military programs while still in uniform (USN/USMC PACE; USAF CCAF; appointment to service academies or ROTC programs).

- "No worry about losing your job...". No so fast! Although the junior officer corps has faced this more often than the enlisted ranks, both groups may be subjected to Reductions in Force (RIF) on Involuntary Release from Active Duty (INVOLRAD) as part of what are ubiquitously called "force shaping" initiatives, but what would be called "cut backs," "furloughs," or "lay offs" in the private sector. We are seeing the beginning of this now, especially for the Army, the Marine Corps and the Air Force.

- Base housing? The fact is more folks live off base than on base. With the exception of "expeditionary bases" in combat zones, no single installation in DoD or USCG has enough on base housing to accommodate all that base's personnel, single or married.

- Purchase a car? In 36 years in and around DoD, I have never seen a commissioned officer who did not own a car. Single junior enlisted folks? Different story...certainly in the boot camps and tech schools you will see folks without vehicles. Ditto midshipmen and cadets in their first two years as the service academies, as well as a number ROTC midshipmen and cadets. But even among single junior enlisted personnel living in a BEQ or aboard ship, most will have a vehicle of some sort...even if only a motorcycle...by the time they join the operating forces. However, some may sell an old vehicle prior to an overseas deployment and pocket the savings for a new vehicle on return home.

Overall, I would agree w/ Eric, and especially Tim, that we do a good job of setting most of the youngsters on the right path financially these days. As I said at my Navy retirement ceremony a few years ago, we do a damn good job of taking in often disorganized 18 and 19 year olds and turning them into fantastic 20, 25 and 30 year olds!

With respect to our younger enlisted Soldiers, Sailors, Marines, Airmen and Coast Guardsmen, today is certainly a far improved situation than what I saw as a junior officer in the 1980s or as a mid-grade in the 1990s when "We finance E-1 and up" used car dealerships and pawn shops were prevalent outside our bases and senior officers in command had a number of youngsters perpetually getting dunned by civilian creditors. For the young commissioned officers, they are well aware that financial issues can impact their security clearances and their career prospects...these days, the junior enlisted, especially if in positions requiring higher end security clearances, also realize this fact if they hope to remain on active duty and advance. And unlike the civilian public or private sectors, ours is (1) an "up or out" system where you must advance (i.e., "promote") at specific points just to remain in uniform, and (2) where how many years you can remain in uniform is based on how high a pay grade you achieve.

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